Biking/hiking loop trail would connect Pa., Md. and D.C.: Will it ever exist?

Grand History Trail would connect Pennsylvania, Maryland and D.C. Will it ever exist?

Scott Dumpe, left, and his girlfriend Mandy Karp sit in the fields along the BWI Trail watching planes land at Baltimore Washington International Airport. Visitors can watch the planes from BWI at the Thomas A. Dixon Jr. aircraft observation area, according to the Anne Arundel County Department of Parks and Recreation. Organizers envision people being able to bike, or hike, a loop called the Grand History Trail, that would take people from Washington, D.C. through Baltimore, York, Gettysburg and more. (Jason Plotkin -- Daily Record/Sunday News)

A bicyclist tracks along the Capital Crescent Trail, which runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. to Silver Spring, Md. One of the original stone markers that was used to define the Washington, D.C. boundaries is at mile 6.7 along the trail. It is within a small fence, according to the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail website. (Photo by Eddie Welker vis Flickr)

Don Gogniat and Gwen Loose of York County are like cyclists approaching a steep hill.

At the top -- if they can get there -- is their vision: A biking and hiking trail that would take you to major cities in the Mid-Atlantic and allow you to explore more than 250 years of American history.

You could ride through York and see the reconstructed Colonial Court House, where the Continental Congress met and adopted the Articles of Confederation.

You could meander through the Gettysburg battlefield, the turning point of the Civil War.

You could sail past the Washington Monument in the nation's capital, trek to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. and journey to Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

But the hill Gogniat, Loose and others must climb could be unforgiving. They must garner support from communities and pull together millions of dollars for construction. They must coordinate support among officials in at least three cities, seven counties, two states and Washington, D.C.

Some of the 33 segments that the 300-mile Grand History Trail would use already exist and are open to the public. But other sections, totaling more than 120 miles, would need to be planned, approved and built. Budgets, in the post-Recession era, remain tight, and land would need to be acquired.

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Jim Brown, manager of trail development for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in Washington, D.C., acknowledges that the project cannot get moving until there is support and interest from all communities along the route.

Gogniat, a former Penn State York CEO who helped to develop the idea of the trail, Loose and other supporters believe they can make it up the hill. They say the Grand History Trail could draw hundreds of thousands of users and bring in millions of dollars to communities along the circuitous route. They say it's too good of an idea not to happen.

Lily Merritt of Baltimore, Md. walks her dog Ernie near the mansion at the Cylburn Arboretum near the Jones Falls Trail earlier this month. The arboretum is the type of attraction organizers of the Grand History Trail effort will promote as a reason to create the loop. (Jason Plotkin -- Daily Record/Sunday News)

It's "going to be the major tourist biking attraction in the Mid-Atlantic area when it's done," Gogniat said.

Gogniat has already started pedaling.

The concept

The idea for the trail is about a decade old. Gogniat was on the board of the York County Rail Trail Authority at that time, and he and Loose, the executive director of the authority, were looking at maps and talking about how to go west from York to Hanover.

Gogniat, a geographer, had been on other trails in the region, including one between Annapolis and Baltimore and the C&O Canal Towpath. He and Loose discussed how a loop could be created around the Mid-Atlantic that would travel through historic places.

YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS--JASON PLOTKIN
Robert Glass of Spring Grove walks along the Rail Trail extension at York Hanover Trolley Line in Jackson Township in August 2012. The trail follows the former "Hanover Fast Line" trolley track that took travelers from York to communities such as Sunnyside, Bairs and Menges Mills, and to the larger towns of Spring Grove and Hanover.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that helps communities build trails from old rail lines, got involved. Communities along the proposed path were interested and plans moved ahead.

Healthy Adams County and the York County Rail Trail Authority planned to develop a trail linking Hanover to Gettysburg, and noted it would become part of the Grand History Trail.

Then around 2007, the recession hit, and the plans stopped. It wasn't the time to talk about building trails, Gogniat said.

"We were just hoping the economy would survive," he said.

Renewed interest

Now the economy is better, Gogniat said.

He has been traveling to meet officials with the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy, the Maryland Department of Transportation and the National Park Service in hopes of sparking renewed interest in the project.

"This is as apple pie as you can get to show how northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania can cooperate together in this important ... economically, socially integrated area," Gogniat said.

He has been reaching out to local residents to raise awareness and interest.

A cyclist rides the Metropolitan Branch Trail, which runs from Union Station in Washington, D.C., to Silver Spring, Md. The trail follows the old Metropolitan Branch line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In the late 1800s, much of the western rail traffic came out of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, according to the trail's website. Today, it's a heavily-used commuter corridor. It connects to seven Metro stations. (Photo by TrailVoice via Flickr)

"I think it would be an awesome attraction," said Angela Eveler, one of the organizers for the bicycle ride.

The group wants to raise awareness and get others involved.

York County Judge Richard Renn, who is one of the riders, said he has ridden his bicycle on other trails in the region as well as out West, including Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. Trails, he said, take riders to areas they can't see by car. "It offers a nice way to see the countryside," he said.

Trails also offer good workouts for cyclists, said Jonathan Pinkerton, vice president of the Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area and another rider in the group. Most visitors to the Heritage Rail Trail County Park in York County, Loose said, cite health as a reason for using it.

Trails also are important from transportation, Pinkerton said. Especially in urban areas, they offer an opportunity for commuting to work.

Pinkerton said he sees the possibilities of connecting the Grand History Trail to trails on the eastern side of York County as well as trails in Lancaster County, which are being built.

Is Great Allegheny Passage a model?

Whenever Gogniat and other supporters talk about the Grand History Trail, they point to the Great Allegheny Passage to show its potential.

The Great Allegheny Passage is a 150-mile rail trail that connects Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md. and links to the C&O Canal Towpath.

The first section of the Great Allegheny Passage was completed in 1986 in Ohiopyle State Park, and small sections were added over the years, said Will Prince, program manager with the Trail Town Program. The last section was completed last year.

It cost about $80 million to build, but "the investment has been well worth it," Prince said.

The rail trail generates about a million trips per year, he said. In 2011-2012, before the last section was finished, it brought in an estimated $50 million per year. It has attracted visitors from other countries. Restaurants, lodging and bike shops, have opened along the rail trail.

Long-distance trails, he said, "become a destination in themselves."

Unlike the Great Allegheny Passage, which is a straight path between two points, the Grand History Trail would be a loop and bring trail users back to where they started if they choose to do the whole thing, Loose said.

Few "loop" trails exist, Brown said. It's easier to create circuitous routes in urban places, and the Atlanta BeltLine and the Philadelphia Circuit, both works in progress, are examples of that.

Why wait?

You can hike, bike and see the sights on several parts of the proposed Grand History Trail now. Check out highlights of these day-trips to trails in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

In York County alone, the Heritage Rail Trail County Park, which would be a section of the loop, has generated 281,000 annual visits and brings in more than $4.4 million annually to the economy, according to a 2012 survey, Loose said.

Money is tight

It's unclear what it would cost to complete the loop, said Brown, of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The general estimate for building trails is about $1 million a mile -- meaning this trail could cost about $120 million -- but in rural areas, it can be significantly less, he said.

Communities have to find the money to build the trails. In some places, such as Frederick County, interest has been limited, Brown said.

Frederick County has supported the concept of the Grand History Trail, said Paul Dial, director of the county's parks and recreation department.

The Frederick County Bikeway and Trail Plan, approved by a prior board of county commissioners, reflects the routes required in the county for the loop, Dial wrote in an email. It would consist of on-road and off-road routes.

But the money isn't there. The capital budget was cut by about 60 percent during the recession and remains relatively flat, he said. Trail construction can be undertaken only as money is available, he wrote. Efforts for trail development are focused in the City of Frederick area.

"This trail concept is very exciting and participation by Frederick County in future years would be given full consideration, as funding becomes available," Dial wrote.

In Adams County, it's been seven years since a study was completed for the Hanover to Gettysburg trail, but nothing has happened with it. The study suggested three possible routes, including a southern one that was favored, according to the study and Andrew Merkel, comprehensive planning manager for Adams County. However, none is in the planning stages.

The cost estimates for construction at that time were in the $4 million to $8 million range, depending on the route, according to the study. That does not include costs for buying rights-of-way or easements if property owners don't want to donate an easement for a tax deduction.

Cost was one of the challenges to development of the trail, according to the study. It also cited that numerous rights-of-way would need to be bought or easements would have to be negotiated with property owners.

There has not been any momentum on it lately to speak of, Merkel said.

"It's not off our radar screen," Merkel said. "We support the concept."

But Loose hopes another project being developed in Adams County will spur interest in building the trail between Hanover and Gettysburg. Efforts are underway to create the Gettysburg Inner Loop bike path in the downtown area. It is being supported by the Healthy Adams Bicycle/Pedestrian Inc.

That project will be a good first step toward creating a trail between York and Hanover, Loose said. It will help officials see how the inner loop is used, and the economic benefit of it.

Another gap exists in Baltimore County between the city limits and the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail, formerly known as the Northern Central Rail Trail. The county has shown little effort to coordinate a connection between the two, Brown said in an email. Advocates have been working to promote a connection, but the county has said that spending priorities will go elsewhere.

It has been years since some of the communities last heard about the Grand History Trail. Some faces on the boards have changed as well.

"We haven't really heard anything in four years, maybe five," said Denis Superczynski, principal planner with Frederick County, Md.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has been discussing whether it is time to try to bring the parties back together again, Brown said. But so far, no decision has been made. It's a result of the conservancy's limited capacity, and a lack of interest from the communities which would be intersected by the trail, he said in an email.

"Our next steps would be to start promoting the concept again with the new community leaders in the Frederick County area," he said.

Gogniat has been looking for alternatives routes for the western part of the loop. He recently met with a representative of the park service, inquiring about taking the trail through Catoctin Mountain National Park in western Maryland if Frederick County doesn't get on board.

Some say it will take an advocate like Gogniat to help make the project a reality. You have to find someone in agencies willing to champion it, Loose said. That's how trail projects, which compete with other transportation issues, can get prioritized.

"It's nice to have that kind of energy behind a project," Brown said.

In the coming months, Gogniat wants to get the mayors of York, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. to endorse the project.

It's a strong project concept with great potential, Brown said, but until there is support and interest from all of the communities along the route, it will be hard for the Rails-To-Trails to dedicate resources to the project.

Despite the millions of dollars it will cost, Gogniat is convinced that Grand History Trail will be built.

"Sooner or later, it will be done," Gogniat said. "It's too good to pass up."

Mark Davison of Baltimore tubes down Gunpowder Falls along the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail in Monkton, Md., earlier this month. Visitors can stop by the restored 1898 Monkton Train Station, which serves as a museum, gift shop and ranger station. There, they can learn about the history of the Northern Central Railway. (Jason Plotkin -- Daily Record/Sunday News)

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